Outdoor Research Advanced Bivy… too hot for summer on a river?

[Max Planck]

I'm looking at the Outdoor Research Advanced Bivy. I want to use it for camping in the fall and spring, but also for camping trips during the summer. I live in northeast Illinois where it gets fairly humid, and I plan to do a lot of summer canoe camping on the Wisconsin River (also humid).

Do you think that a Goretex bivy such as the OR Advanced will be too hot/moisture trapping for summer camping in this kind of climate?

The main reason I want a bivy so badly is that it seems much faster and easier to set up than a tent. My big hope is to be able to leave my sleeping bag and pillow in my bivy, roll the whole thing up and tie with a bungee cord, then stuff that in a bag. This will make for absolute minimum setup/take down time.

I used a bivy in the Idaho desert when I was a kid and I loved it, I'm just wondering if the humidity in Wisconsin/Illinois will preclude using a bivy out here.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Max,

I think that sounds awful, actually. The bivy will be way too hot.

You could consider taking a big bivy- that would be fast and easy. Then you could use a lightweight tarp when the weather turns bad. But as much as I loved my Advanced Bivy, I hated it when I carried it in the summer. It was a sweatbox. And for the weight, there are many tents that would be way more comfortable such as the Gossamer Gear the One, for example.

[Max Planck]

Thanks a lot for the info Doug. What do you mean by a "big" bivy?

Since you're suggesting using a tarp, I'm assuming that you're suggesting that the top part of the bivy be made of a material other than Goretex, right?

I've read that the other materials used instead of Goretex are not rain proof, and even the most water resistant ones will leak after a couple hours rain exposure. Does that sound right? If so, then this is why I would need a tarp over the bivy, right?

I wish I could find a bivy with a head area design similar to the OR Advanced which I could use in warm/humid weather. That head area design seems just perfect.. flip it open and sleep under the stars minus mosquitos, then simply flip it closed if it starts to rain, all without having to get out of the bivy.

It will be a pain to get out of the bivy to set up a tarp if it rains, and the tarp will obstruct the "sleeping under the stars" feeling if it's set up above the bivy earlier as a precaution against rain. I could just lay the bivy next to the tarp and drag it under if it starts raining, but this is still nowhere near as elegant a solution as the OR Advanced's flip-up head… plus you have to take the time to set up the tarp in the first place.

One of the things that makes bivys attractive to me is that they are super fast to set up, no staking down required, and I may be able to keep my sleeping bag/pillow rolled up in the bivy for even faster setup/takedown (just pull it out of the bag!). This is a big part of why I'm leaning toward bivies and away from tents.

[John S.]

Max, I think Doug meant Bug Bivy.

[Max Planck]

LOL ok that makes more sense XD

Won't I still get wet in the rain under a tarp if I'm in a bug bivy? (unless I really wrap the bivy up good, in which case it will get sweaty)

[Art Sandt]

Max,
If you're bivying on rivers in the Midwest with a bivy made of Goretex (or any type of waterproof fabric), definitely use a synthetic sleeping bag. Things get really wet in those valleys and when I'm backpacking in the Ozarks, I always hike high up on ridges so as to avoid the nighttime fog. It only took one wet night with a down bag (when it didn't rain) for me to figure that out. Tarps don't make sleeping under the stars impossible… if you pitch it high, you can still see out from under it, unlike with a tent.

[Author]

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